Entertainment Today: Showbiz news

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures named "Moulin Rouge" Wednesday as the best film of 2001.

The rest of the Board's Top 10 list include "In The Bedroom," "Ocean's Eleven," "Memento," "Monster's Ball," "Black Hawk Down," "The Man Who Wasn't There," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," "The Pledge" and "Mulholland Drive."

"Moulin Rouge" -- starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor -- combined contemporary music and MTV-style production values to produce director Baz Lurhmann's ultra-modern vision of Paris at the dawn of the 20th century. The movie was recently given a limited re-release as part of a campaign to drum up support for it during the movie awards season.

The NBR's pick for the Top 5 foreign films of the year are "Amores Perros," "Behind The Sun," "Dark Blue World," "No Man's Land" and "Amelie."

The group named Billy Bob Thornton best actor for his performance in "Monster's Ball," "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "Bandits." Thornton's co-star in "Monster's Ball," Halle Berry, was named best actress.

Jim Broadbent ("Iris," "Moulin Rouge") won for best supporting actor. Cate Blanchett ("The Man Who Cried," "The Shipping News," "Lord of the Rings") was named best supporting actress.

Todd Field won for best director for "In the Bedroom." He and his co-writer on the project, Rob Festinger, won for best screenplay.

Peter Jackson, the director of the upcoming "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," received an award for special achievement in filmmaking. The movie -- scheduled to arrive in theaters later this month -- also won for best production design.

"Shrek" won for best-animated feature.

"Wit," the HBO movie directed by Mike Nichols and starring Emma Thompson, was named best film made for cable TV. "Endurance" was voted best documentary.

The NBR previously announced that Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Jon Voight would be recognized with three of the group's top honors.

Spielberg will receive the Billy Wilder Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, Scorsese will receive the William K. Everson Award for Film History for "Il Mio Viaggo in Italia" and Voight will receive the NBR's Career Achievement Award.

The awards will be presented Jan. 7 in ceremonies at Tavern on the Green in New York.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

According to a report in Daily Variety, Arnold Schwarzenegger stands to make as much as $30 million for "Terminator 3."

The report cited sources "close to the production" as denying the $30 million figure, but said that "other sources" revealed that Schwarzenegger's payday "will slightly exceed the $25 million" he made for playing Mr. Freeze in "Batman and Robin" (1997).

Studios are currently engaged in a bidding contest for distribution rights to the third film in the "Terminator" series.

The screenplay has been kept under tight guard, but there is lots of speculation about what is in it. According to one scenario, it is set 10 years beyond "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," with John Connor now a young man going to battle with his terminator pal against a female terminator.

(Thanks to UPI Hollywood Reporter Pat Nason)

'ARK'

Two-years in the making, "ArK" -- the 3-D science-fiction feature film based on photo-realistic digital characters -- is expected to be released next April.

This will be the first joint-production by Digital Rim Inc, the joint venture by South Korea 3-D animator Digital Dream Studios (DDS) with Rainbow Studios, director John Woo and Terence Chang.

Marianne Suh, vice-president, animation & film business at Digital Dream Studios, told UPI the total cost of the film, expected to be rated PG-13, will be about $7 million.

Suh said the studio had learned a lot from the release of "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," produced by Square USA Inc (a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Square Co.), which proved to be a triumph of technological innovation but a flop at the box-office. "Final Fantasy" was the first computer generated, animated feature film with photo-real human characters.

DDS recently gave a very short preview of the film at the Asia Animation 2001, the first fully dedicated industry exhibition for the region.

United Press International is a leading provider of news, photos and information to millions of readers around the globe via UPI.com and its licensing services.

With a history of reliable reporting dating back to 1907, today's UPI is a credible source for the most important stories of the day, continually updated - a one-stop site for U.S. and world news, as well as entertainment, trends, science, health and stunning photography. UPI also provides insightful reports on key topics of geopolitical importance, including energy and security.

A Spanish version of the site reaches millions of readers in Latin America and beyond.

UPI was founded in 1907 by E.W. Scripps as the United Press (UP). It became known as UPI after a merger with the International News Service in 1958, which was founded in 1909 by William Randolph Hearst. Today, UPI is owned by News World Communications.